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While we were busy making our living room, library and playroom the coolest places to chill, our master bedroom was sadly neglected 🥹
For three years, I completely avoided decorating our bedroom. I absolutely hated the walls and carpet we inherited, so I didn’t want to bother until the bones were decent.
We bought our 2010 house in 2019. The previous owner had wall mounted shelves and a TV bracket which we removed, but apart from that, we didn’t do much with this room and just waited it out til we could give it a complete overhaul.
🎬 WATCH: Bedroom Before & After
The room had a textured beige feature wall (very 2010) and matching beige (very dirty) carpet. I don’t think you can polish a turd, so I didn’t try 💩
But we had a plan… to turn this boring beige room into a monochrome slash earthy toned, farmhouse-inspired (but still kinda eclectic) cosy couples retreat.
Here’s how we transformed our master bedroom into a space we actually liked 👇
Black Ceiling & Fan
The first order of business was painting the ceiling black 🖤
Painted ceilings are having a moment right now, but when we told people we were doing this in late 2022, we got some funny looks!
Since we were sticking with white walls, we wanted to add some drama to the space some place else. I loved the look of white walls with painted ceilings, and I’ve always loved black and white, so we decided to go black. And you know what? We’re never going back!
Martin attempted painting the ceiling himself, but black is a tricky colour! All the roll marks were showing and it just wasn’t what we envisioned.
So we ended up hiring a professional painter to spray the ceiling and it turned out so much better 👍
Martin sprayed the air-conditioning vent black too so it wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb.
🎬 WATCH: Painted Black Ceiling
It’s pretty warm where we’re from, so a ceiling fan is a must – especially on the days when it’s warm but not scorching.
Just like the air-con vent, we didn’t want the ceiling fan to stand out. So we donated the chrome fan that was already in the room and replaced it with a black fan from Beacon Lighting.
Along with the black fan, our electrician buddy Dave installed dimmable downlights on the ceiling. We don’t use the overhead lighting too much, but when we do we like it quite dim, so having that option is great.
I have no regrets painting our ceiling black! 🖤 Had it been white, the room just wouldn’t make the statement it does. I think any other bold colour would work too, but we knew we were going to have a ceiling fan so black made the most sense since it’s virtually camouflaged and doesn’t demand attention.
🎬 WATCH: Black on Black Ceiling Fan
Built-in Bedhead Ledge
Once the ceiling was painted, we were free to get started on the rest of the room.
So the next thing was the walls 🤍
We painted all the walls with Taubmans Crisp White, expect the textured beige feature wall which we had other plans for, since this is where our bed would go.
Instead of having a bed with a headboard, we decided to cover up that wall with a built-in bedhead with a ledge to display some of our treasures.
🎬 WATCH: Built-In Bedhead Ledge
Martin built this bad boy with his bare hands! 😎
After building the frame, he installed panelling (which we sourced secondhand) horizontally on the bottom part of the bedhead.
Above that, we added some live-edge timber that we sourced from a local lumberyard.
Then above that, we installed more panelling, but this time, vertically.
The horizontal panelling on the bottom half makes the space feel wider since the lines draw your eye across. Simultaneously, the vertical lines on the top half draw your eye up, making the space feel taller. See what we did there?
Martin got the pre-wiring done by our electrician buddy, who installed wall lights and toggle switches directly into the bedhead for us.
Although the ledge does get a little dusty, I love that we can add interest to the space with decor, and it’s been really fun to style the ledge with things I’ve collected at my favourite stores and thrift shops.
Mattress & Bed Base
Since we have the new built-in bedhead, we didn’t really want a bed frame with a headboard, so we went hunting for a timber bed base.
There wasn’t a lot available but we did end up finding this backless bed base from Temple & Webster which suits the oak floors nicely.
Our mattress is the Hybrid Mattress from Valmori Home Collection.
Never did I think I’d get a mattress in a box, but stranger things have happened!
The firmness was perfect for Martin however I personally like them a little softer, so we also got a gel foam topper from Valmori to give us a little more cushion for the pushin! 😉 (ew, jokes)
Bedding
Depending on the weather, we switch up our bedding a lot.
In the summer time (which is like half the year here in Western Australia), we sleep with a flat sheet and a light bedspread.
In the winter time, we’ll use a quilt or a thick comforter with a flat sheet.
We do however always use our linen sheets from Eva Home. We’ve got their sheet sets in three colourways so we can mix and match according to mood or what’s clean!
I love how these sheets look, even when they’re all crinkled and messy (I don’t have time to iron them, do you?)
🎬 WATCH: Linen Sheets
Since the room is mostly black and white, we rely on soft furnishings like the bedding and rug to add warmth and colour. I love that I can completely change the vibe of the space just by switching up the bedding.
Once we got our terracotta rug, we added a black and white kantha blanket from Biggs and Hill, which is a beautiful addition to our rotating bedding collection.
Timber Flooring
We ripped out the old carpet and replaced it with real oak flooring, which we don’t have anywhere else in our house.
We have jarrah floors in the living areas, which is beautiful and warm but we wanted to go for a cooler-toned floor in here.
We bought oak flooring from Trevors Carpets here in Perth, which Martin installed himself.
🎬 WATCH: How to lay timber floor
Once the beautiful new oak floors were in, the bones were finally good! Martin finished it off with white skirting to match the white walls as well as the trim in the rest of the house.
Wool Rug
Of course, a bed should be framed by a rug.
Our previous rug was lovely and soft, but had very muted colours… which eventually got fairly dirty.
We recently upgraded our rug to a wool ‘Desert Bloom’ rug from Maia Homes and it has completely changed the vibe of the room!
👀 READ: 6 reasons why rugs make the room
I’m a firm believer that rugs are art for your floor and this one is art.
Since it’s wool, it’s super thick and soft. But my favourite part of it is the terracotta colour which works so nicely with all the black and white, as well as our terracotta sheets and gold vintage gallery wall.
If you need a rug, you can use MISMATCHEDHOME for 10% off at Maia Homes, who ship internationally. Please note that these rugs are not cheap and they don’t arrive quickly; you pay and wait for quality in this case, but they’re so worth it!
🎬 WATCH: Bedroom Rug Size Guide
Bedside Tables
Previously we had some upcycled black bedsides, but the black showed up every speck of dust and I’m not a clean freak, so the sight of dust (that I refused to clean every day) was doing my head in!
So this year we replaced them with the Hideaway Side Table from Eva Home.
They literally arrived the day after I ordered them which is so impressive since we’re in WA (aka, Wait Awhile).
The wall lights are hardwired into our bedhead and were on clearance from Beacon Lighting.
I’m so glad we pre-planned and got wall lights. It means we’ve got more space on our bedside table and there’s no lamp cord running along the bedside either.
To turn on the wall lights, I really wanted a small, traditional-style switch instead of the stock standard ones, so I found these beautiful black toggle switches by Tradco. Of course, we paid a premium to have these but it’s a small detail that satisfies me. If I have to sleep next to a switch, it better be pretty!
Bed bench
It’s harder than you think to find a king-sized bench for the foot of your bed!
For us, having something here was essential, since Magnus and Axel can’t always jump up on the bed at the height it is. So this bench gives them the boost they need! 🐾
I really wanted something upholstered but I didn’t want to break the bank. Most of the options I found were not wide enough for a king size bed, and I wanted it to be the same width otherwise it just wouldn’t look right to me.
I ended up finding the Clover Dining Bench from Early Settler which is the perfect size for our king sized bed and suits the space to a tee.
Upcycled Dresser
We decided to place a lowboy dresser and mirror on the wall opposite our bed.
If you follow us on Instagram, you’ll know that we don’t typically buy storage furniture brand new since one of us is decent at upcycling and the other is decent with design ideas 😉
Turns out we already had a good-sized dresser (the raw pine IKEA Tarva dresser) in our nursery, which was very generous in size for baby and toddler clothes. Kaia was about to move into her big girl bedroom, and it wasn’t going to fit in that room anyway so we decided to repurpose it for our room.
So we gave it a facelift with black paint, paintable wallpaper, drawer trim, new brass hardware and new chunky feet that we bought from a salvage shop.
🎬 WATCH: Upcycled Tarva Dresser
I love that the dresser repeats the black from the ceiling and adds texture via the paintable wallpaper.
For the mirror, I was looking for something almost as wide as the dresser. I found a simple big 900mm round mirror on Marketplace for the bargain price of $50. It was a factory second since there’s a smudge on it that can’t be removed, but you can barely see it! It might be more noticeable in a bathroom, but in here, I literally never notice it.
I love that it reflects so much of the bedhead ledge and windows, and just makes the room feel bigger.
Of course we wanted some more mood lighting in the room, so we got the Eton Table Lamp from Beacon Lighting. I love that it’s a touch lamp and the walnut base and natural linen shade fit the warm colour scheme well 🤎
Vintage Gallery Wall
The wall to the left of our bed leads to our ensuite (yet to be renovated) and features a smaller wall which used to have a dresser on it.
Since our dresser was going opposite the bed, this blank wall was screaming for artwork.
Renovations are expensive, so I really wanted to save money where we could.
I also wanted to add a bit of vintage to the space, as well as a bit more warmth to counteract all the black and white.
I’m a big fan of gallery walls, so I decided to hang a vintage gallery wall here with artwork slowly collected from secondhand stores and vintage markets.
I collected a bunch of original paintings and laid them out on the floor to mock up a layout. I like to do this to visualise how it’s going to look, then I take photos and ponder for a while 🤔
The above layout was a bit too big, so I sold a few of the pieces and sourced a couple smaller ones for the final gallery wall.
👀 READ: How to hang a gallery wall
In my mind, the final gallery wall has a story.
The lady in the centre (who reminds me of my Filipina mum when she was younger) has travelled the world ✈️ She started her adventure in Asia, before exploring Europe and Canada, then settling down in Australia 🌏 That’s how I read it anyway!
🎬 WATCH: Vintage Gallery Wall
Windows
The wall to the right of our bed features a big window with a view of the trees that line the front of our house.
The window had roller shutters and the previous owner had some light brown venetian blinds.
The existing blinds didn’t really fit the new vibe so we decided to replace them.
We also wanted to add architraves around the window to frame it and finish it off. Martin has been slowly adding the same white trim to all the windows in our house, which just makes it look so much more detailed and finessed.
We replaced the existing blinds with white timber venetian blinds from Blinds Online.
We’ve got the same white blinds in our living room and bedrooms – we can control the amount of sunlight we let in and they create beautiful shadows in the room when the sun hits them. Since they’re white, they bounce the light around beautifully.
Of course, the bedroom needed curtains. Personally, I think every well designed space needs curtains or roman blinds to finish it off.
We installed floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall sheer white curtains from Blinds Online. Hanging your curtains floor to ceiling gives the illusion of higher ceilings, and installing them wall to wall has the same effect width wise.
Our curtains are S-fold curtains on a track, so the folds are always beautifully spaced and wavy. The sheer fabric lets in so much light and since we have venetian blinds and roller blinds, we didn’t need the curtains to be heavy.
White sheers just go with everything! I’ll always love them 🤍
The room is the prettiest at around 2-4pm when the afternoon sun hits and the white window furnishings bounce the sunlight and shadows all around.
🎬 WATCH: Window Glow-Up
Window Seat
At the entrance of the room and beside our walk-in wardrobe is another small window.
We hung some timber roman blinds from Blinds Online here to add another natural element to the room. We also repeated the black on the trim of the blinds.
Below this was previously empty floor space, which was the perfect spot for low storage. Instead of finding something off the shelve, we decided to make a built-in bench with storage for shoes.
Martin built a bench with deep drawers both here and in our entryway. We’ve got a lot of shoes, so having a place to dump them out of sight has been so helpful!
We had the seat cushions made locally by Emma from Little Bird Upholstery here in Perth. I bought the fabric (Bright Ebony by Warwick Fabrics) myself then gave it to Emma along with my dimensions and she did the rest.
It’s the perfect spot for Magnus to wait for us to get home. I thought he might start doing his overnight sleeps here, but so far he’s still comfy on our bed right beside me 🥰
A sweet place to snooze 😴
We’ve still got our ensuite to get to, but for now, this room is everything we dreamed of!
I’ve always loved the high contrast of black and white, so this space is so satisfying to me. I love that I can change up the vibe of the space with the bedding and the rug if I wanted to – I could easily ditch the earthy colours and go bright since the bones of the space are quite neutral.
When we eventually do our ensuite, we plan to repeat the black, white and wood theme but flip it. Think black floor tiles and white patterened wall tiles, with a timber vanity, black hardware and lots of plants! 🪴
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